Man Or Monster
by Northern-Southern Belle
Summary: Ruby takes Victor back to Storybrooke so he can ask Granny for her hand in marriage, but things take a frightening turn when he attempts to murder the old lady instead, which leads to a startling revelation about the man she's about to marry. Frakenwolf oneshot.


Disclaimer: Only plot is mine!

Victor Frankenstein tossed and turned in his bed and then finally, giving up on any hope of getting to sleep, sat up and looked at the clock beside his bed. It read 3:00. He took a deep breath, ran his fingers through his damp blond hair, and then got up to dress. He'd been having a lot of trouble sleeping these days, and he'd found the best way to cure this was to leave and walk around for awhile. So that's what he did. Eventually, he found himself at a train station. He pondered whether to leave, and if that was the plan, which line to do it on. And in that case, there would be one other thing he'd have to do too. He might as well do that now. He took out a pen and a scrap of paper from his pocket to pen a note to his girlfriend, Ruby.

_I cannot explain this to you, but you'll have to believe me in any case. I'm leaving, Ruby. There's nothing for me in this town except a room in a dingy hotel. I have no friends, no money, no job. I know I have you, and I know it's selfish of me to leave you, but really, I think it's for your own good. Please, Ruby. Trust me._

He finished the note and put the pen and the note in his pocket. He heard a breath behind him and turned around quickly to see an old woman in bedraggled clothing and a moth-eaten hat standing behind him, so close that he bumped into her as he turned.

"Are you all right, young man?" She asked him.

"Sure," he said. "And I'm sorry if I startled you. I didn't hear you come up behind me. Are you waiting for the train?"

"What I'm waiting for doesn't matter," she said. "I have to ask you: do you read the book?"

"Book?" Victor frowned. "What book?" Looking offended, the woman hit him on the arm. "The gook book, of course. The bible! do you read it?"

"Oh, yeah," Victor nodded, straightening out the collar of his white button down shirt. She started quoting scripture at him, leaving him time to finish the verses, but he couldn't, in spite of what he'd told her.

"It would help you to read the book," she said and put a religious pamphlet in his hand. "It's men like you especially that need to be saved. The sick and dying ones."

"I'm not sick _or_ dying!" Victor said, feeling offended. "I'm in perfect health."

"Oh, I don't know about that," the woman responded. "My Joe looked like that before he died, all white and pasty. Went to bed after dinner one night, and the next morning, I went to wake him and I couldn't. So, let me save you, young man. Let me, please!"

As a result of the woman's pleading, two things happened in Victor's brain: one, he was overcome by an inexplicable urge to kill her, and two, he heard beeping in his brain, like in machinery. The woman reached out for him, still blathering on about his salvation, just as the morning train came toward them. Taking a deep breath, he threw the woman onto the tracks, and, realizing what he'd done, Victor ran from the station, panting and wondering what the hell he was gonna do next. Then, he pulled the note out of his pocket. Ruby, he told himself. He was gonna see Ruby. He was supposed to meet her, and he didn't want to be late.

* * *

Ruby Lucas was up much earlier than usual, but it was for a good reason: her new boyfriend Victor, whom she'd only been seeing for a week, had agreed to go back to Storybrooke with her to face Granny, and not only that, he'd insisted on leaving at an ungodly early hour. She'd occupied her time by making the pair of them a picnic. Victor was running late. She pulled the chicken out of the oven and smiled at it. It had turned out perfectly. Something Granny would have been proud of her for if she'd actually seen it.

Just then, there was a knock on the front door. "Miss?" Called Victor. Grinning, Ruby grabbed her cape and put it on before saying, "Yes, what is it?"

Victor smiled from the other side of the door as he said, "I'm selling candy bars to raise money for my school, and if I sell enough, I'll win a bike. Wanna by some?" Grinning, she opened the door and ushered him in. "No, thanks," she said. "Candy bars are no good for me. What took you so long, Victor? You're the one who insisted we leave at six and now you come here forty-five minutes late!"

"What?" Victor asked, his blue eyes wide. "That can't be. It's six, I swear!"

Ruby pointed at the clock, which clearly read seven A.M.

"Well, that's not right," Victor said, dumb-founded.

"Did something happen to you?" Ruby asked. "Is there seriously time that you don't remember?"

"Yeah," Victor sighed and took Ruby in his arms. "I guess. Do you think I'm crazy? I think you'd be better off without me."

"I think you're wrong," Ruby told him. "What I know about myself is that according to my grandmother, I'm much too old to be single, in love with a man named Victor Frankenstein that I've only been with a week, and who loves me so much in return that he's coming with me to Storybrooke to impress my difficult grandmother whom he's never really talked to. You really are a sport, Victor." She then showed him the chicken. "I made it so we could have sandwiches," she said, and then put it in the picnic basket. "Let's go! We have lots of time to make up for."

"All right," Victor nodded. "Lead the way, Ruby."

* * *

The ride to Storybrooke was smooth for the most part, until, right as they were about to arrive in town, a napping Victor began muttering in his sleep. Although he was asleep, he sounded terrified. Finally, he got so agitated that Ruby parked the car on the side of the road and shook him awake.

"Are you all right?" She asked, worried.

"Yeah, why?" Victor asked.

"You-you were muttering in your sleep." Ruby said. "Who is he? You seem terrified of him."

"I don't know," Victor shrugged.

"Maybe you should see Archie," Ruby said. "It seems like you're just bogged down by stress. Is it because of that new project you're working on that you won't tell anyone about?"

"Project?" Victor asked, seeming confused. Then, he came back to himself. "Oh, right. The project. Yeah, it's a bit of a handful, but I'll get it done. Don't worry about me. Everything will be fine."

"All right," Ruby said and crossed over the town line. "It was really nice of Jefferson to give you the magic to travel around, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Victor nodded. "He's a good guy." As they drove through town, people saw them and gave them strange looks. When Ruby parked in the parking lot of Granny's and went in, Granny told her, "It's about time you got back. I hope this rascal's been treating you well, and not taking up all his time with his project. This is the first time we've seen him in months!"

"Oh, he's fine," Ruby said, and then nudged Victor. "All right," she said. "Ask her what you came to ask."

"All right," Victor nodded. "Mrs. Lucas," he said, looking Granny in the eye. "I would like to ask for Ruby's hand in marriage. We haven't been together long, but I know that I want to spend the rest of my life with her."

Granny's eyes narrowed and she picked up a knife. "Don't you dare," she said. "If I were to let my granddaughter be with anyone, it certainly wouldn't be with you!" She waved the knife in his direction. "Now get!"

Suddenly, the beeping and urge to kill came over Victor again, as it had with the old lady at the train station. He looked at Ruby and said, "Run, Ruby. Go outside and don't come in again until I say."

"Are you sure?" She asked. "I really think we should take you to Archie's now-"

"Go!" Victor cried, the beeping in his head getting louder. Once he was gone, he bounded over the counter, wrestled Granny's knife away from her, and the two of them struggled, with Victor getting a few deep knife wounds in the old lady's body. As this went on, one of the patrons called the sheriff and David and Emma arrived a few minutes later. They tried to wrestle Victor off Granny, but for some reason, found it difficult. Finally, Rumple managed to get the unbelievably strong Victor off of Granny's weak, bleeding body, then he and Emma held him while he was cuffed by David and hauled off to the police car and an ambulance took Granny to the hospital.

"Oh, my god!" Ruby cried as she saw Granny being wheeled out. "Granny, what's happened?"

"Victor stabbed her," David replied. "Repeatedly. We're taking him to jail now, and with proper care, Granny should be fine."

"Good," Ruby said, tears in her eyes. "Good."

But just as they reached the police car, Victor broke free of David's grip and zipped off at a speed that was too fast for even the police car. He hid in the woods, breathing hard, and then, noticed something: there were tears in both his wrists from getting free of the handcuffs. He peeled the skin of one of his arms away to reveal wires and circuits. It was the same with his other arm. He spent the next three days wondering about this, before stumbling out of the woods at nightfall a few days later. Then, he felt someone grab him. Thinking it was David or Emma, he struggled, before he heard a voice say, "Stop it. You've caused enough trouble. Come home where you belong."

There was something familiar about the voice, so Victor let himself be carried to a car, and driven to a castle, all the while never getting a good look at the other person's face. They were well inside the house before the light came on, and Victor found himself face to face with...himself.

"You-you're me!" He cried. "For the love of god, what's going on here?"

"I've been looking all over for you for an entire week," his double said quietly. "Where have you been?"

But Victor didn't feel like answering any of those questions. "Who are you?" He asked, coming closer and closer to the other man until their chests touched.

"You don't remember, do you?" The man asked. "I'm Victor Frankenstein."

"No!" Victor shook his head. "_I_ am! Ruby will tell you if you'll just get her here!"

The man gave a wry chuckle. "After you killed her grandmother, I bet she'll never talk to you again. And see, when I created you a week ago, that's what I was worried about. You're the first robot I've ever made, planned to be a more perfect version of myself. Someone whom, if my father were alive today, he would love more than he ever loved me. But something went wrong. It was probably the magic I used. It made you unstable, insane. A week ago, you and I got in a fight. You hurt me with scissors and ran off." He pulled his shirt away from his skin to reveal a five inch long scar right next to his heart. "Any closer and it would have been fatal. Thank god I'm a doctor." He stepped away. "Once you disappeared, I tried looking for you, but there were no signs, no news, no indication of where you'd gone. Until you showed up in Storybrooke again, and tried to kill the Widow Lucas. That's when I knew I had to find you, before yet another one of my creations gave cause to earn the moniker, "Frankenstein's Monster. I have to dismantle you. For the safety of myself and everyone else." He stepped toward his robot creation and tried to take hold, but that lead to a scuffle, and Victor, the _real_ Victor, finally managing to disable his creation, leaving him a heap of twisted metal on the floor. Then, he left his castle and ran to the inn, going in and heading to the upper floor where Ruby and her grandmother resided.

"Ruby!" He breathed. "There's-there's something I have to explain!"

"Why did you do it?" Ruby asked him. "Why would you hurt my grandmother?"

"I-it wasn't me," he said. "You know that project I was doing that I wouldn't tell you or anyone about? That was it. It was defective. I was going to destroy it, but it hurt me and got away before I could. And it hurt your grandmother too. Oh, Ruby, I'm sorry."

"Well, luckily for you," Ruby sniffed, "Granny will be okay. They got her to the hospital just in time."

"Well," Victor replied, "I should probably get down there then, and see what I can do to help her. Would you like to come with me?"

"Yeah," Ruby nodded. "All right." They left the inn and headed to the hospital, where Victor left Ruby in the waiting room and went to do surgery on Granny. It was a long and arduous procedure, but once she was in recovery, Victor went and told an anxious Ruby that she was gonna be okay.

"Thank-thank you," Ruby said, standing up.

"And I know this isn't something I should be asking, but...would you forgive me?" Victor asked. "When I made that _thing_, I didn't mean for it to kill anyone."

Ruby stood up and said, "You never do, do you?" She sighed. "Since Granny is gonna be okay, I guess-I guess I can forgive you. It's not like _I've_ never killed anyone before. Just promise me one thing."

"Anything," Victor replied.

"No more making creations you can't control," Ruby said. "You want your name to stand for life? It does, when you're a doctor. _That_ is the positive way to make your mark on the world without having to worry every second of the day about problems."

"You know, you're right," Victor replied. "And I've learned my lesson: No more tampering with life for me. No more playing God. From now on, I'll be content to be just what I am, nothing more, nothing less."

"Good," Ruby nodded and took his hand. "And good luck with that."

And Victor nodded. "Thank you," he said. "Thank you very much."


End file.
